“As clever and precise as a French farce; except that instead of doors opening sharply on one side and slamming shut on the other, these dangle indecisively ajar.”—The Boston Globe

“Barthelme’s latest is about loss…but it is also a recognition that starting over, however involuntarily, forces people out of habit and into building something that might hold up better this time.”— Maud Newton, NPR

“Barthelme’s eye and ear unerringly capture the moment he lives in.”— The Los Angeles Times

“Illustrates the beauty that sympathetic, precise examination of people and places, stripped of any grandiosity or overcomplication, can convey.”— Philadelphia City Paper